How to Do the French Drop Coin Trick

Learn how to do the French drop coin trick from celebrity magician Matt Wayne in this Howcast video.

Transcript

Parlez vous francais? Oui, oui. Je suis le magicien

And right now, we're going to show you the tourniquet vanish, or commonly known as the French drop vanish, which is one of the oldest coin vanishes in print. Let's actually take a look at it here. I'm going to take coin, and we'll make it vanish. Like that.

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The book version tends to teach it like this. The version that I personally prefer, looks like this, where the coin is twisted and vanished. Both have their place. If you're beginner, I personally would recommend just learning the book version, where you reach in with your thumb, and you're grabbing the coin. As you grab the coin, the coin drops. At the same time, your right hand turns over, concealing the coin from view. You can then crush your hand and turn it over, then show that the coin has vanished. And then you can pull it out of someone's ear, or you could pull it out from behind your leg, whichever reappearance of the coin that you prefer.

So once again, your hand comes over. As your fingers go through, the coin is dropped. The coin is then shown to appear in this hand, just by keeping your hand natural. This is not natural. This is natural. If you were to grab a coin normally, you'd just take the coin like that. So try and mimic normal actions, by taking the coin, giving it a little blow, and making it vanish.

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A subtlety to the French drop vanish is where you twist the coin right before you drop it into your right hand. This was taught to me by a magician, John Blake, where you take your pointer finger and you swivel the coin, once again right before you drop it. And would be a retention of the eye for the spectators, those who are watching you do this trick. Watch. Just give a little twist. A little blow. The coin vanishes.